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EDMONTON - The comforting smell of smoked meat fills the nostrils the moment you walk into Baltyk Meat, a Polish deli in the Kingsway area.

Co-owner Ben Jasinski, 58, was a sausage-maker in his homeland of Poland before he fled to Canada 25 years ago. With his wife and their two young girls, he walked away from their home, packing only a few things, looking for all the world as if they intended to return from a visit to relatives in Germany.

They didn’t. With virtually no money, and few possessions, the family was lucky that Jasinski’s head was stuffed with knowledge — knowledge that he put to work, first as a black market meat cutter in Germany, and later, when he and his family came to Canada as refugees.

“I came to Canada, and I thought about doing something from home,” recalls Jasinski, who worked at a meat-packing plant for a few years before starting Baltyk Meat. “But the inspiration was my wife. I was too chicken.”

Today, Jasinski’s deep understanding of flavour, texture and variety in sausage meat makes his deli (co-owned with partner Jan Figura, also a Polish emigrant) a destination, not only for those of Polish extraction, but for all Edmontonians who appreciate good cured meat.

The shop features a big smoker in the back, fuelled by cherry, hickory and maple wood. Jasinski jokes that he makes sausages Monday to Thursday in the hopes that he will make money Friday and Saturday. The variety of meat produced is impressive, and it’s not all slaska, or Polish sausage. Jasinski also prepares sausages in the style found in Latvia, Ukraine and Belarus, just to name a few East European countries with a fine tradition of sausage-making.

Ninety per cent of the sausages in the shop are handmade by Jasinski, who also smokes ham, chicken, ribs and bones (for delicious, smoky soup). Bring in your own turkey at Christmas, and Jasinski will smoke it for you, too. He also carries German wieners, white sausage, breakfast sausage, juniper sausage and cold smoked back bacon. No preservatives or additives, outside a small amount of nitrite for colour, are in the preserved meats.

In classic deli fashion, workers at Baltyk Meat also make a popular takeout vegetable salad, artfully garnished with tiny peas, along with an artisanal pate. Exotic products such as head cheese (meat jellies made with flesh from pork hocks and tongues) are popular with some customers, mostly those of European extraction.

“A customer wants some blood,” says one of the clerks to her boss while he tours me about the shop.

“I’ll see if we have some frozen,” is Jasinski’s response.

The deli case at the front of the shop displays a wide selection of cheeses. Most are from Poland (including Edamski and smoked Zamojski), but there is also the odd chunk of Canadian-made Gouda. A freezer case is well stocked with a good selection of perogies, including blueberry-stuffed.

Shelves in the bright and tidy shop are loaded with specialty condiments (pickles, horseradish beets, Wolski brand peas) and household staples such as cake mixes and fruit syrups for special drinks. Laundry detergent and beauty products from Poland assuage the homesickness of some clientele.

“Most customers are Polish, but Canadian people come too because they like the products,” says Jasinski. “And their grandparents might be Polish, or European. We are all immigrants to Canada.”

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